With Broken Collarbone, Hamilton Wins a Stage of Tour

By SAMUEL ABT

Published: July 23, 2003

BAYONNE, France, July 23 — Tyler Hamilton, riding in pain with a double fracture of his right collarbone since July 6, added another exploit to a classic Tour de France today by going on a long solo breakaway in the Pyrenees and winning the day's stage by nearly two minutes.

"It was incredibly difficult," he admitted. "But today's made up for everything." The 197.5-kilometer (122-mile) course passed over six climbs, one so steep that Hamilton, the American leader of the CSC team from Denmark, seemed to wipe away tears of suffering.

Hamilton, who has been riding with his collarbone taped into place, got over that climb a couple of minutes ahead of his dozen companions in an early attack. From then on, he basically rode an 80-kilometer time trial, easily holding off all pursuers.

Most of them, including all leaders, finished together and there was no change in the overall standing.

Hamilton's lead peaked at just above five minutes with 40 kilometers to go. Riding powerfully, Hamilton still had more than four minutes over the pack with 15 kilometers left.

Discussing the fracture at a news conference after this 16th of 20 daily stages, he said: "It's feeling better. It's not 100 percent, it's still sore. I have to sleep on my back, not on my side, and I'm tired of that.

"I can pull on the handlebars a little more now, but I still favor" the collarbone.

Known as a tough rider, Hamilton finished second in the Giro d'Italia and 15th in the last Tour with a broken left shoulder.

A native of Marblehead, Mass., he finished the trek from Pau to Bayonne, on the Atlantic in western France, in 4 hours 59 minutes 41 seconds, a speed of 39.5 kilometers an hour on a warm and humid day. The main pack among the 148 other riders finished 1:55 behind with Erik Zabel, a German with Telekom, second and Yuri Krivtsov, a Ukrainian with Jean Delatour, third.

Lance Armstrong, who finished 24th, retained the overall lead by 1:07 ahead of Jan Ullrich, the German leader of Bianchi, and 2:45 ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov, the Kazakh leader of Telekom. The victory allowed Hamilton to move up one notch, to sixth place over all, 6:35 behind the American leader of the United States Postal Service team.

Armstrong, for whom Hamilton was a first lieutenant in the first three of his four consecutive Tour victories, embraced him after the finish.

Obviously thrilled with his first stage victory in seven Tours, all of which he has completed despite injuries and illness, Hamilton crossed the finish line by tapping his right hand on the handlebars, clapping his hands and lifting his arms upward. A moment earlier, he reached over to his team car and shook hands with Bjarne Riis, the CSC director and the winner of the 1997 Tour.

Hamilton credited both Riis and the CSC team for his victory.

His teammates, he noted, had to rescue him at the start of the stage. "I made a big mistake," he said. "I was at the back of the pack in a winding, twisty descent and the pack was in single file and split" into two groups.

Hamilton said that he had to call for help to get back with the leaders and that five of his teammates waited for him and led him toward the front. Shortly thereafter, he rode off to join an early breakaway and, on the second of two first-category climbs, he split from his companions and began his long march to victory.

"I dedicate today's victory to my teammates," he said. "Without their help, I wouldn't have won, for sure."

Discussing Riis, he explained that the director said on Tuesday that this stage reminded him of one in the 1997 Tour where he gained many minutes. "It was a real mountain stage," Hamilton said of the last of four days in the Pyrenees.

Riis has also been instrumental in transforming Hamilton from a valued support rider into a leader who was the star of the spring after his victories in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic and the Tour of Romandie.

He came into the Centennial Tour highly rated among Armstrong's challengers before the mass crash on the first road stage that sent him to the hospital.

"This is my hardest Tour ever," he said. "The first week was brutal. Both on and off the bike, I was suffering. I decided to stay in the race till the team time trial" on July 9 "to help my team, then took it one day at a time and here I am."

Hamilton was asked about a charge by Walter Godefroot, the director of the Telekom team, that the fractured collarbone was not really broken but was "a P.R. trick."

Godefroot was welcome to visit the CSC bus and look at the X-rays, Hamilton said, adding quietly that "Godefroot is more or less calling me a liar and I don't like that."

The X-rays have been published in newspapers and the accusation has not been made by anyone else.